17 Nov 2019

Government through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is committed to the welfare of children regardless of race, nationality and status, says Member of Parliament for Tonota Mr Pono Moatlhodi.

Mr Moatlhodi who was giving a key note address at the meeting hosted by Skillshare International Botswana in Gaborone on November 15 said goverment's committment was shown by the implementation of statutory instruments such as Children’s Act and  the UN Convention on Children’s Rights (CRC) which has been signed and ratified. 

 “I am happy to inform you that government signed the CRC 25 years ago, which means we are celebrating the Silver Jubilee.  CRC was the first international convention to affirm human rights for all children” he said.  

Further, Mr Moatlhodi  said government had affirmed that children should have the right to basic education, health, food, shelter, protection and safety and other rights as conveyed in the CRC.

These rights were extended to children under the government protection like the refugees and asylum seekers, he said. 

He further noted that government was committed to child participation through the youth councils. 

Mr Moatlhodi said youth councils together with Child Protection committees ensured that children’s voices were heard on issues of their concerns.

He applauded Skillshare International Botswana as they have the technical know-how of training duty bearers on issues affecting children. 

Mr Moatlhodi said that at Dukwi, Skillshare International Botswana had worked with the local authority, schools, police, parents and children themselves to protect and safeguard children. 

"Because of the campaign, there has been zero teenage pregnancy at the camp since 2015 to date," he said.

He emphasised that children should  to stay under the parents’ guidance at least until at the age of 18 years. However, he said ‘due to no fault of their own, irregular migrant children or children on the move find themselves not enjoying the rights that children should have." 

Therefore, he said partners like Skillshare International Botswana who had built relationships with duty bearers to look for such children and raise awareness about their protection were critical.

Mr Moatlhodi urged the public to help children  who did not have access to education, medical care as well as those  employed as child labourers.

For her part, the Vice  Chairperson for Skillshare International Botswana Ms Letsha Kgotla thanked the organisation’s staff who worked tirelessly to put together the initiatives.

She said the campaign had seen the complete elimination of teenage pregnancy at the camp since its inception in 2015. 

She explained that Skillshare had recently concluded and published the organization’s strategic plan for 2020-2024. 

She said the plan described the new priority sectors for Skillshare International Botswana’s work for the next quarter, among the priority areas were child protection, youth empowerment, education, and livelihoods and entrepreneurship, and of course cutting across all these areas was advocacy.

"We are aware that implementing activities that protect and guard against violation of children’s rights was the corner stone of building towards protecting children” said Ms Kgotla. Ends